Netflix, Amazon, and branded television content in subscription video on-demand portals
- 13 October 2017
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Media, Culture & Society
- Vol. 40 (5), 725-741
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443717736118
Abstract
Branding has been described as the defining industrial practice of television’s recent past. This article examines publicly available industry documents, trade press coverage, and executive interviews to understand the place of traditional television network branding in subscription video on-demand (SVOD) portals as represented by Amazon and Netflix. Focusing on materials relating to licensed rather than original content and this content’s role within the US domestic SVOD market, two distinct approaches emerge. For Amazon, the brand identities of some television networks act as valuable lures drawing customers into its Prime membership program. For Netflix, linear television networks are competitors whose brand identities reduce Netflix’s own brand equity. Ultimately, Amazon’s efforts to build a streaming service alongside network brand identities and Netflix’s efforts to build its own brand at the expense of such identities demonstrate the need to think about contemporary television branding as an ongoing negotiation between established and emerging practices.Keywords
This publication has 17 references indexed in Scilit:
- “Great Shows, Thanks to You”: From Participatory Culture to “Quality TV” in Amazon’s Pilot SeasonTelevision & New Media, 2016
- Binge-watching: Video-on-demand, quality TV and mainstreaming fandomInternational Journal of Cultural Studies, 2015
- Is this TVIV? On Netflix, TVIII and binge-watchingNew Media & Society, 2014
- Branding TelevisionPublished by Taylor & Francis Ltd ,2012
- Brand HollywoodPublished by Taylor & Francis Ltd ,2007
- TELE‐BRANDING IN TVIIINew Review of Film and Television Studies, 2007
- Critical Industrial PracticeTelevision & New Media, 2006
- BrandsPublished by Taylor & Francis Ltd ,2006
- The Evolution of Gendercasting: The Lifetime Television Network- “Television for Women”Journal of Popular Film and Television, 2002
- The Family Racket: AOL Time Warner, HBO, The Sopranos, and the Construction of a Quality BrandJournal of Communication Inquiry, 2002